QuartZ's Anovos ANH Stunt Build

[QuartZ]

On 1/2/2018 at 2:55 AM, Harbinger said:

Nice clean work there. Keep it up!

Thanks! I'm still moving along at an encouraging clip.

 

Last night I took all the clamps and magnets off of the biceps and cleaned up any E-6000 glue that had been squeezed out of the sides of the cover strips. At first I used a popsicle stick as suggested in a Panda Props YouTube video. Then I had an idea for a simple tool that I could 3D print to help make the job easier. I'm still iterating on it, but the first version works really well! And since it's printed in white ABS, it doesn't seem to scratch or leave any marks. More on that tool hopefully later.

 

So here's the cleaned up biceps:

 

I still have a few items left to do on these biceps in order to call them done (please chime in if I've missed any). I think I'm going to add snap plates that connect the bicep to the forearm. I know that the elastic can be glued directly the armor, but I like the idea of being able to adjust the elastic length/replace it when it wears our simple by remaking a new elastic piece with snaps. Any opinions either way? I'm also debating wether to go with the bicep hooks on the inner side of the biceps or additional snap plates on the outer side that connect to the shoulder bells. Again, thoughts?

 

-Dana

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Beautiful work Dana. As for the bicep to forearm connection canon is highly suggested however, there's nothing wrong with snaps either. 

[QuartZ]

10 hours ago, ukswrath said:

Beautiful work Dana. As for the bicep to forearm connection canon is highly suggested however, there's nothing wrong with snaps either. 

Thanks, canon is straight glued right? If so, care to shed some light on why they are highly suggested? Only reason I can think of is accuracy. We never see the actual connections from the outside, right? Just trying to understand/make sure I don't overlook anything when deciding. I'm new

 

-Dana

[Harbinger[IPM]]

- Maintains forearm/bicep gap

- Keeps forearm from rotating

- Allows you to put on shoulder/bicep/forearm assembly like a sleeve

[QuartZ]

12 minutes ago, Harbinger said:

- Maintains forearm/bicep gap

- Keeps forearm from rotating

- Allows you to put on shoulder/bicep/forearm assembly like a sleeve

Hehe, I got all that  I think you may have just caught the question in my very last post. I appreciate the reply though!

 

I was trying to decide between gluing the elastic straight to the inside of the armor or using snap plates in the bicep and forearm as a way to secure the elastic with snaps. No matter what, I'm absolutely connecting them with 2" black elastic to match what we can see on the real suits (from the outside). I may just glue them into the suit but I'm trying to understand ukswrath's point about one method being suggested over the other. Looking to understand the preference component especially if there are any functional or aesthetic advantages to the "canon" method.

 

Thanks,

-Dana

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Glue is just screen accurate, no real reason as far as I know beyond that.

[TheSwede[TK]]

Screen accaracy is the way to go It also provides a smoother surface to the inside and if you use good elastic there really is no need to replace it as there is no real strain at that area (you usually keep your arms bent during troops thus no tension on the elastic) however you can still replace if by simply ripping it out and sand of whatevers left..I needed to shorten my shoulder elastic so that`s how I know, I also could have folded it over but opted to simply remove and reglue

[ukswrath[Staff]]

8 hours ago, QuartZ said:

Thanks, canon is straight glued right? If so, care to shed some light on why they are highly suggested? Only reason I can think of is accuracy. We never see the actual connections from the outside, right? Just trying to understand/make sure I don't overlook anything when deciding. I'm new

 

-Dana

As stated by fellow members, below my comment. If done correctly you'll never have to worry about this section as long as you own the armor. In addition, this is the same procedure used for thigh suspension.  

[QuartZ]

Got it, thank you all for helping me. Sorry if you've had to go over this a million times before.

 

My last question for the bicep/arm connections is where did the idea of adding hooks for the shoulder elastics come from? I haven't seen this anywhere on the screen used suits. This seems like a non-canon connection that IS visible from the outside when wearing the armor. Did the original suits have any connection to keep the shoulder and bicep aligned/connected? I can't find any evidence.

 

Thanks!

-Dana

[TheSwede[TK]]

1 hour ago, QuartZ said:

Got it, thank you all for helping me. Sorry if you've had to go over this a million times before.

 

My last question for the bicep/arm connections is where did the idea of adding hooks for the shoulder elastics come from? I haven't seen this anywhere on the screen used suits. This seems like a non-canon connection that IS visible from the outside when wearing the armor. Did the original suits have any connection to keep the shoulder and bicep aligned/connected? I can't find any evidence.

 

Thanks!

-Dana

Troopers helping Troopers Dana  and...the bicep clips originate from the trash compactor scene, Han did have trouble keeping his biceps up in the previous scenes but here they stay put

Edited January 4, 2018 by TheSwede

[TheSwede[TK]]

Trooper on the left has tape to keep his in check (learned this on my second build) 

[QuartZ]

3 hours ago, TheSwede said:

Trooper on the left has tape to keep his in check (learned this on my second build) 

WOW!!! I’ve looked over these pictures a ton before to help me with other aspects of  my build, but I’ve never noticed both of those tiny little glimpses of the hooks. In fact I’ve pointed out the white tape on the trooper in the second photo to friends before but never noticed it seems to be holding a hook onto the exterior of the bicep! I thought it was repairing a crack in the plastic!

 

I am humbled by this knowledge drop and hereby retract my notion that the hooks were possibly non-canon. I just got schooled

 

Thank you all so much. That’s some exciting info,

-Dana

[TheSwede[TK]]

2 minutes ago, QuartZ said:

I thought it was repairing a crack in the plastic!

 

Exactly what I thought before I got schooled

[QuartZ]

Alright, it's been a couple days since I showed progress... but I was working on the armor. I mentioned before that I got all the final fitting, trimming, and sanding done on the forearms in preparation for assembly. Here's how the parts looked starting with the left forearm:

 

And the right forearm:

 

Tip: I've been using this technique when sanding the butt-joint surfaces to ensure good adhesion with E-6000 I just forgot to take pictures and post it when I was working on the biceps. Since the arm cover strips are 15mm wide, I measured 6mm in from the edge of all the arm parts, and ran a strip of blue painters tape down to act as a guide and protective layer so that I could hit the edges with 120 grit sandpaper to give the surface some "tooth":

 

The photo below shows what the roughed up surface looks like once the tape has been removed. You can see where the reflections stop as they hit the rough area. Oh, and those little pencil tick marks were made to help me put the blue tape down in the previous step (they are 6mm in from the edge): 

 

I also have been using a Sharpie marker on the "glue side" of all the cover strips to denote where they go. LF = Left Front, RR = Right Rear and so on. I also consistently make these marks at the "Top" edge of the cover strips so there's no question of which end is which. I say "Top" meaning towards the sky when the armor is on.

 

Another nice thing about the Sharpie markings is that they seem to hold up even when I sanded the glue sides of the strips. Here's a look after sanding. I still know where this one goes :

 

That's it for this post. I'm uploading some more photos right now as I just completed the first stage of forearm gluing.

 

Be back soon,

-Dana

[QuartZ]

I'm back! I know, that was quick. I actually took these photos before my previous post was made. I just needed to clean up my work area before I posted these.

 

So, I did my usual dry test and determined that I would use mostly my larger magnets. On the right arm I could use clamps for the ends but on the left one I found the clamps didn't fit well in the raised channel that the cover strip sits on top of. So I used the large magnets the whole length of the cover strip. I also decided to use some thin blue painters tape as suggested by others to help keep things in place. Here's the right forearm:

 

Left forearm:

 

Tomorrow morning I'll do the reverse side(s) and that should be that. Moving along!

 

-Dana

[TheSwede[TK]]

Looking nice and clean 

[QuartZ]

By now anyone following my threads (this one and my long-neglected E-11 build thread) know that I'm always looking for ways to 3D model and print parts/items that I can. So I thought I'd take a stab at those bicep hooks. Something that I wanted to do with my design was to improve the surface area that gets glued to the inside of the bicep and create a part that had flexibility and more strength knowing I planned on having the hook jog around the "top" return edge of the bicep.

 

After some measurements of my armor, and referencing ukswrath's dimensions, I whipped up this part in Fusion 360:

 

These didn't take much time to print out since they're not big parts. Here's 2 of them printed in white ABS:

 

Below are some photos showing some test fittings. I used some magnets to temporarily hold them in place to get an idea of how they might mount. Everything seems to line up well (on both arms):

 

This shot (looking at the bicep from the inside) illustrates how they get around that return edge and make a lot of good contact. I'll have some great bonds once I sand the both the hooks and armor in these locations. It even rides most of the return edge which gives me even more surface area to glue:

 

Another note is the way I printed these (orientation on the print bed) also was deliberate to increase strength in the direction that forces would be applied to the hook. I know that the armor doesn't weigh much, but I took my first test print and put an unreasonable amount of force on the hook (trying to bend it backward so to speak) and it didn't snap. Very resilient little parts.

 

-Dana

[QuartZ]

Last night I worked on the shoulder bells. First I worked on the trimming. I wanted to get the edges near the chest/back to have that nice curve we see on the screen used armor. Mine were a bit to straight/flat from my rough trim. So I tweaked it, sanded it, and was happy. I also marked the insides of the bells with the part #s and a little L/R for quick left/right reference. Once the shape was locked down. I grabbed some 1" wide black elastic (Dritz braided) and measured 2 pieces. My Anovos armor seemed to be perfect for a strip 9" in length. This gave me 2" on each side to glue down. I cut out 4 little scrap pieces of ABS at 2" x 1" to aid in clamping. Here's a look at the shoulders:

 

I ended up supplementing the clamps with magnets as well. Once these are good, I'll work on the connections to the chest/back bridges. I already have those Dritz #10 snaps. Again, I'm just bouncing all over!

 

-Dana

[QuartZ]

I almost forgot to post these, not that they're a big deal. I pulled the clamps and magnets off the forearms (just the first halves) and I cleaned up the extra E-6000 ooze with my 3D printed tool I've been hinting at (I promise I'll show it soon). It works really well. So here's some photos I took right before I glued up the other sides of each forearm. Right side:

 

Left side:

 

Gotta keep on keeping' on!

 

-Dana

[QuartZ]

Had a weird, rainy day yesterday. It was BBB Day #2.

 

Huh? I'll explain if you forgot/didn't see my first post. I ordered my kit from Anovos back in December of 2016 and all the delays last year frustrated me to the point that I went out and got a kit from an individual who had one in-hand. Well, a little more than a year has passed and I received a shipping notification from UPS and went to go pick up the box since I wasn't going to be home to sign for it.

 

So now I have a V1 kit and the new V2 kit. Not sure what I'm going to do with this one yet but I'm going to hang onto it for now.

 

-Dana

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Build a Sandtrooper 

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Or ESB. Or HWT.

[QuartZ]

@ukswrath - in your tutorial, you mention using Dritz #10 snaps and 3/4" elastic for the connections from the shoulder bells to the chest/back elastic. I picked up the snaps, and when I laid them on 1" elastic they look proportionally correct to the screen used armor in the RS gallery as well as the photos of your tutorials. If I were to lay them on 3/4' elastic, the snaps would touch the edges of the elastic. Do I have something wrong here? Do I have the wrong snaps? Or is there a typo in your tutorial and you meant 1" elastic. Here's what I have/what I mean:

 

I appreciate the double check,

-Dana

[Harbinger[IPM]]

I used 1” nylon so hope its a typo.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

5 hours ago, Harbinger said:

I used 1” nylon so hope its a typo.

It doesn't matter